appartenir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French apartenir, borrowed from Late Latin appertinēre (“belong to”), from Latin pertineō. Cf. also Old French partenir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.paʁ.tə.niʁ/

• audio

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Verb

appartenir

1. (intransitive) to belong [+ à (object) = to]
2. (intransitive) to concern [+ à (object)]

Conjugation

This is a verb in a group of -ir verbs. All verbs ending in -tenir, such as contenir and détenir, are conjugated this way. Such verbs are the only verbs whose the past historic and subjunctive imperfect endings do not start in one of these thematic vowels (-a-, -i-, -u-).

Conjugation of appartenir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	appartenir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	appartenant /a.paʁ.tə.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		appartenu /a.paʁ.tə.ny/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	appartiens /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃/	appartiens /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃/	appartient /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃/	appartenons /a.paʁ.tə.nɔ̃/	appartenez /a.paʁ.tə.ne/	appartiennent /a.paʁ.tjɛn/
	imperfect	appartenais /a.paʁ.tə.nɛ/	appartenais /a.paʁ.tə.nɛ/	appartenait /a.paʁ.tə.nɛ/	appartenions /a.paʁ.tə.njɔ̃/	apparteniez /a.paʁ.tə.nje/	appartenaient /a.paʁ.tə.nɛ/
	past historic2	appartins /a.paʁ.tɛ̃/	appartins /a.paʁ.tɛ̃/	appartint /a.paʁ.tɛ̃/	appartînmes /a.paʁ.tɛ̃m/	appartîntes /a.paʁ.tɛ̃t/	appartinrent /a.paʁ.tɛ̃ʁ/
	future	appartiendrai /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁe/	appartiendras /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁa/	appartiendra /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁa/	appartiendrons /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/	appartiendrez /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁe/	appartiendront /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	appartiendrais /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	appartiendrais /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	appartiendrait /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɛ/	appartiendrions /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	appartiendriez /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁi.je/	appartiendraient /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃.dʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	appartienne /a.paʁ.tjɛn/	appartiennes /a.paʁ.tjɛn/	appartienne /a.paʁ.tjɛn/	appartenions /a.paʁ.tə.njɔ̃/	apparteniez /a.paʁ.tə.nje/	appartiennent /a.paʁ.tjɛn/
	imperfect2	appartinsse /a.paʁ.tɛ̃s/	appartinsses /a.paʁ.tɛ̃s/	appartînt /a.paʁ.tɛ̃/	appartinssions /a.paʁ.tɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	appartinssiez /a.paʁ.tɛ̃.sje/	appartinssent /a.paʁ.tɛ̃s/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	appartiens /a.paʁ.tjɛ̃/	—	appartenons /a.paʁ.tə.nɔ̃/	appartenez /a.paʁ.tə.ne/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• appartenable
• appartenance
• l’avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt

Related terms

• pertinent

Further reading

• “appartenir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.